ENOUGH ‘WOMEN’S WORK’ FOR A LIFETIME

INSTRUCTIONS BELOW FOR SENDING ME A FREE TEXT MESSAGE FROM YOUR COMPUTER -- DO IT!!! Thanks Chirs H. i got yours!

So I got up this morning at about 9, after letting myself lounge around a bit in the warm sunshine coming in from my window, in hopes of beating the cold that everyone seems to be coming down with. I cleaned up my room and then finished the Da Vinci Code, which I started yesterday. I really enjoyed it, should have read it a long time ago.

At 10:30 I started my laundry process. First I have to start a fire in the outside open wok-like thing. I used sunflowers as a burning tool. After the water heats to a boil, I pour it into our machine and start adding small loads, starting with whites. I haven’t done laundry in a few weeks, so it was quite a process. While the next load is mixing, and after I hand wash everything for a while, I rinse with cold and hang on the line. Well this week I filled the entire line and then some. No idea how I ended up with so many dirty clothes, especially after I actually found myself wearing the same thing over and over. The sun was so bright and it was so warm that I actually had a pretty good time doing it. But, it took almost two hours just to wash.

After I finished that, we took all the rugs off my floor and my sheets too and washed them and hung them on the front gate. I thought maybe that I was through with my chores, and headed back to my room to change out of my pajamas. I was so wrong. Not even five minutes later my host father knocked on my door and said I needed to come outside. I went with him, and took the puppy too, but little did I know, today was a holiday, and we were having a huge party… which means, yep you guessed it, a sheep slaughter. We all said a Muslim prayer over the sheep, and then slit. Yeah, exactly like that, just a quick slit of the throat and that’s that. Not exactly my idea of entertainment, all though a crowd gathered to watch.

I went back inside, where I was informed that I would be in charge of making borsok. Borsok is a type of fry bread that is always present here. No matter what, there is borsock on the table. Every meal. It is an easy process to make it, but it is time consuming and kind of hot and sweaty. (By the way, no banya either). So luckily the dough was pre-made for me, so I had to roll it into sections and slice it first. Not a difficult task, but when Kyrgyz people make borsok, they make it for 100’s of people at once. So a sheet was laid out on the floor and I rolled out about a million squares to cut up. After that I sliced the dough into small pieces, as borsok is like little pieces of elephant ear, except no sugar, cinnamon or butter and no county fair to buy it at. After that I take a tray at a time out to the fire, and dump it into the boiling oil and then remove it with a strainer seconds later. Then run back inside and get more, and so on. In all we had enough borsok to cover an entire 20 person table, which is precisely what we did with it.

After the borsok we made a different type of bread and then I thought I was free. I really needed to wash my hair and change clothes, since we were having this big party. But no, the family started rolling in and the women immediately had to start preparing the intestines and ‘parts’ of the sheep for the meal. I was in charge of all and I mean ALL of the children.

Four boys and two girls. The two girls are ages 2 and 4 months. The boys are 3, 8, 10 and 5. Azamat is the three-year-old, and is the most rotten of them all. One minute he is sitting in my lap, resting and sharing a pear with me, and the next I find him tossing my puppy into a sac of corn. He is a monster. A monster. I could hardly keep tabs on him all day, and then the 4-month old and Azamat’s little sister who cries whenever she doesn’t get her way? Hectic. And they were all in my room playing with Dino and my camera and my sunglasses… I was worn out fast. But I got a couple of cute pictures to post.

I did finally get a chance to dump some water on my head, wash my face and change for the party. The guests arrived at around 6 pm. All family. More than 40 people in our dining room. I got to sit near the end of the table where the oldest family members sit. Chong Apa (Grandma) is 90 and sat next to me. She doesn’t say much, but leads a prayer for everyone. A man came in to sing and pray before we ate, and then the feast began. Not really my kind of feast I must say… I usually try to hide and just eat the pears. First a man comes around with a basin of water and everyone washes their hands. (Men and women in separate rooms, kids in another) The sheep is brought in. All parts are served including the head, eyes, nose, legs, intestines, etc. on top of noodles. Kyrgyz people eat every part of the sheep, including the fat. So huge chunks of fat are everywhere. And when I say huge, I mean huge like the size of peaches. I request no fat, but usually still end up with intestines. This time I got a giant bone and part of the intestines. Oh yeah and the liver. Which I graciously returned to the platter. After the meal the man comes around with the water basin again, another prayer is said, and then the meal is over. I was pretty exhausted by that time. I had to take the puppy into my room to sleep because of Azamat, and I was out cold.

My future husband better know how to cook.

October 31, 2005

I woke up this morning in pitch blackness, hoping the sun might come out sometime before I had to leave for language class. It didn’t. I decided to listen to my Ipod the entire walk to school, as usually I don’t because so many people try and talk to me, even at 7:30 in the morning. This morning I wasn’t feeling too social, so I did. Big mistake. Remember I said I have to walk through herd of cattle? Well, I didn’t hear this one and it snuck up on me, and scared me to death. I actually turned around when I felt a cow nudge my backpack and ran the rest of the way to Bak’s house. Pretty scary.
Before that though, I did notice that a man pulling a trailer with what looks like a gas tank on the back. Apparently every morning he comes around and honks ferociously until a woman from every house comes running with a bucket of milk. They pour it in and he goes to the next house. And then he takes it into the city to sell.

Today was the midterm language test, and it went really well. I don’t know my actual score yet, but did pass and am staying here. So that’s good news. Tomorrow is a tech day, where we learn English teaching stuff and then Wednesday is the big day. Site announcements!!! Finally everything will have a purpose, we will know where we are going to be for the rest of our time here and what schools we will be teaching at. Everyone is really anxious to find out. I am hoping to be near skiing…

We had a little ‘American’ Halloween party at Xouhoa’s house on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. We didn’t have time to get dressed up, as we spent the day in Tokmok, having language class, and teaching our last practicum lessons at the school.

We did though have quite a feast. We pooled money and bought apples, pears, oranges, bananas and a lemon at the bazaar, and somehow even found a jar of Nutella too. We sent Christabelle’s little brother out to get beer in the village, and sure enough, he came home with5 big bottles, despite being 12. We played Kings and listened to music and ate lots of good fruit. Rebecca and I were even escorted home by Xouhoa’s two younger brothers, ‘Chinges and Dustaan.’ Both are about 16. Let me tell you how fun it is to walk home in the dark with a couple of 16-year-old boys that you cannot communicate with. First they just shined the flashlight on the stars the whole way and then every time I got near a pile of poop they would scream and laugh. When we got anywhere near a tree, they would turn off the light so I would run into the branches.

Xouhoa dressed in all black and put an 8 on her shirt and was a magic 8-ball. She had a pouch of answers to the questions you asked. The other Betsy dressed as me, and said she was the other Betsy. She curled her hair like I do. Laurie was a manhole. Greg was sheep fat, which everyone tries to make us eat. I was sick, so I stayed home to rest, but as you read above, my host family didn’t really let me sleep or rest.

On Friday night Rebecca and I went to the local store (a one-room brick shanty with a couple of shelves and a table) and bought three Baltic 3’s (brand of beer, they have 1-9) and celebrated a Friday afternoon. We went to her house for dinner afterward, as my host father has been sick, with what I don’t know, but anyway, she warned me that her older sister got married the week before so the family was still celebrating. Celebrating means vodka. Rebecca and I were given shots at dinner, over and over. And over and over. Dinner lasted for hours. We had a great time. I swear, a little vodka really gives you the courage to speak Kyrgyz! We chatted with her brother and his wife for hours, and then her younger brother walked me, (a very happy me at that) home.

I fell asleep with a big smile. I woke up feeling really good, surprisingly. My parents called, so thanks for that, I love getting phone calls. (It is a big deal when you only get one a week). I then went to the school to teach my final class in the village, as we are only here for another couple weeks before we move to permanent sites. I played pictionary and we talked about things they wanted to discuss, like my American boyfriends and movie stars. It was a great practicum, I loved the kids. They are on fall break now, so I walked alone to class this morning. They have two weeks off after every nine weeks. So right after Christmas they will have another break.

I got a package again today. Postmarked Oct. 8, so it took about 23 days. All books. At least 20 paperbacks. I already started one, The Cowboy, as I can’t resist a book with a title like that! The girls are all borrowing too, so thanks mom. I have quite a library going here, but I was out of books to read myself after I finished one yesterday. I think in the amount of time that I have been here I have finished at more than 20 books. There is an American bookstore in Bishkek, so I will be able to buy books once I get to go to Bishkek on a regular basis. If that’s an option, I could be down south, where it is a long drive.

Katie’s mom if you are reading this, next week we are going to arrange a time where you can call her on my phone (Happy Birthday). We are staying at the hotel in the city before we head to our sites for a visit next week. She is doing better, and all though she was in the hospital last week, she is fine, better and is eating solids again! She loves your packages!

Ev- thanks for the message!! Keep that sister of mine in line.

October 25, 2005

What does it take to make me happy? Walking home through the cornfield after an afternoon of learning the language and seeing smoke coming from the banya room!!! I got a banya today and that made the whole week a little better. We have frost and frozen water now, so the temperature is slowly dropping. Its not that bad, its just that it never warms up anywhere. I mean you can’t go inside and get warm, there is no heat. Anywhere.



October 27. 2005

I got a package from Katie today… thanks. You are great, but tell Everett that all though it’s a clever nickname, I don’t really care to be called ‘Pesty.’

The power is out in the village for the evening, so I am sitting by candlelight, typing on my computer and playing solitaire. We are trying to all come up with Halloween costumes as we are having a local party in our village on Saturday and then a big get together with the entire group of 60 on Sunday afternoon in Tokmok. We have only come up with things like French girls, Madonna, traditional Kyrgyz people, a cowgirl, a hippie, a white-trash redneck girl, a potato, and things like that. I have the clothes to be a hippie but everyone wants me to dress like Madonna from her ‘Material Girl’ phase… clever huh? We’ll take pictures, Rebecca is going to dress like our host moms, in Kyrgyz clothes, gold teeth and all, and then when people ask what she is she can say ‘your mom’ ha ha ha… we are pretty limited here for Halloween. I can’t even track down a cowboy hat.

So that’s basically all that has gone on this week. I should have some pretty good stories to tell after our Halloween parties this weekend…

Listen Up!!!

I just found out that I can get messages on my phone for free from all of you really easily.
Follow these instructions:

1. Go to http://smsgate.bitel.kg/
2. scroll down as the site is in Russian
3. At the bottom of the screen there is a menu bar, look for SMS
4. Click on it
5. Put my number 129375 in the Number box and type in a message
6. Press the button on left which is Russian for send

More blog entry coming tomorrow when I get more internet time... but today was the language test and I passed!!!

MY NEW PUPPY -- TEX

October 23, 2005

We got up early this morning after quite a day yesterday, to go to the bazaar in Tokmok.

Yesterday we all had morning classes that we taught in our villages schools, and then headed into Bishkek for the ‘football’ game. I guess I was expecting something totally different, but anyway, we took a marchuka from the Tokmok bus stop into Bishkek with some volunteers from another village. We had a pretty good time, but it was a hot, hot day. (I’m not sure if I ever explained the way driving here works in detail. Drivers just go whenver, wherever they want. They don’t follow any street signs, they DO NOT stop for pedestrians, they don’t yield or use turn signals, they don’t pass with caution or anything like that. If you want to pass, you pass. It doesn’t matter which side of the road you do soon or if you use a blinker, (if you even have one). The drivers honk their horns constantly, at cows in the road, sheep, people, Americans, etc. They just fly. And the cares are comparable to the ones we use in our demolition derbies back home. There are nicer cars, they are just few and far between. When the drivers are going distances it is worse. If I end up in the South, I am going to have to wear my headphones all the time when traveling, with a mask over my face or I might prematurely develop a heart condition. Did I mention seatbelts? Haven’t seen one since I got off the AIRPLANE. Oh yeah, and livestock (I MEAN LIVE – STOCK) goes in the trunk).

Anyway, we went out to lunch in Bishkek at a traditional restaurant then walked to the stadium for a game. The football game turned out to be a scrimmage between the American University in Bishkek and male Peace Corps volunteers. Enough said.

So with that in mind, a few of us hit the tavern across the street and had our own fun. I did see Phil recover an onside kick though, so there is my shout out to him. We had our own tailgating outside the field. Apparently the score was 28-14 them. Too bad. Maybe they should have let some of girls play – we are probably mostly the same size as the men here. Poor Laurie at 5’9” feels like an amazon. (Very beautiful though, with a wonderful smile).

After the game we headed to the Metro, the American bar and restaurant in Bishkek. We joined about 25 volunteers (including lots of official volunteers, not just trainees) and ordered pizza, burritos, burgers and beer. And for the first time since we have been here; Pepsi light. You really can’t find it very often I guess. I had a burger and a Malibu and orange juice. Andrew had good beer, that I liked a lot. Phil had a snifter of cognac too, which tasted pretty good. The food wasn’t bad either. Too bad we ended up spending like 5000 som, which was way out of budget, even for 15 of us on that ticket. (For example lunch earlier in the day only cost us 50 som each.)

Rich, once again helped us get into a taxi to the bus station and then we met up with our LCF to go back to the village at about 8 Saturday night. (****I think Rich was mesmerized by new female trainees****).

Today we went back to the bazaar in Tokmok (15 minute taxi ride) and exchanged money and interneted. At the bazaar I bought shoe shine, as my host mom has informed me that my shoes are way to dirty and need to be shined everyday, a spliter so I can plug in TWO things at once from my one sketchy, spark shooting outlet and kiwis. We had pizza for lunch, and when I say pizza I mean, bread with a sour cream like substance on it, then cheese, then tomatoes, cucumbers, chicken and ketchup. We’ll take what we can get.

I took pictures of the puppy, Tex, so they should be posted when I post this. I try not to get too attached to this dog, as it could die any second around here, and I feel like it wouldn’t be fair to my baby Kodi back home…

NO BANYA TODAY… for some reason they didn’t fire up the banya this afternoon, so I didn’t get my weekly bath. Ummm…. That’s bad. I did wash my hair on Friday though, ((its Sunday). So I should be good until tomorrow. I’ve got a sweet updo going on…

Dinner tonight was seriously mushed walnuts. I hate nuts. And birds. A couple of days ago some kids were walking me to school and a warm of birds was forming above my head, I ran away and the boys laughed at me and called me crazy. But really, ever since the pigeon came in Eleanor’s when I was working I am deathly afraid of birds. But back to the dinner. Who serves walnuts for dinner? I now they are like the state fruit here and everything, (That’s just a term, I understand that they aren’t fruits and this isn’t a state and everything but I think you get the jest of it) but really steamed walnuts? Where am I? And how did I end up here? Someone asked me last night where I was exactly a year ago? Umm. In the ‘Scow drinking whiskey with Gerad and Hank and Holli, playing Texas Hodl Em’ and listening to classic country and hitting the Troy Tavern at 10 for karaoke. Big change. I can honestly say that there is now no place I would rather be. I love my life. (That’s for you, Linds).

The picture I posted is of me after I found out I didn’t get my weekly banya.

These are shots of kids in the village and in Tokmok.

THIS IS ME AFTER FINDING OUT NO BANYA!!!

Outhouse...

More pics below

October 21, 2005


Okay. First off, lets clear a few things up.

NO. 1 I DO NOT HAVE A MISSING TOOTH, DESPITE THE WAY THESE PICTURES MIGHT LOOK. I HAVE PERFECT TEETH THANKS TO MY PARENTS, AND PLAN TO KEEP THEM THAT WAY. THE PICTURE QUALITY IS DISTORTED.

NO. 2

I am going to describe my house in my village. I walk in the front door, which locks with a latch, and am in the garage. On one side I have a room with a wood stove and a sink with a bucket above it that puts water into the spout. It drips into a bucket that you empty periodically throughout the day. It has a television and a stack of mats that my host parents make into a bed at night. They both sleep in the living room/kitchen/bedroom. On the other side of the house is a formal dining area and my bedroom. In between is an outdoorish kitchen with a stove, another drip sink and the banya, and it connects to the chicken coop. That’s it. No kitchen or anything like that.

Okay, so today I taught in front of the staff, and I was pretty nervous. It ended up going really well. I was pretty happy with the class. We went over families and I used a diagram of my own family tree to explain it. After that we learned adjectives and I got a good review from the TEFL coordinator. So I’m happy. We had more language lessons this afternoon and then I headed home… or so I thought.

I walked into the house and wanted to take a little nap, before Chrystal and Laurie came by to watch movies. But my host mom said something to me that resembled neighbors and leaving the house, so I changed out of my school clothes and went with her. We met up with 15 other women from the neighborhood and headed to one house. At the house we all sat down for tea, and then the vodka came out. I don’t think I have ever seen so many women taking shots before. They just kept coming. It really loosened me up and I found myself speaking Kyrgyz and having the best time since I have got here. They made me feel so welcome, and I was giving English toasts with their Kyrgyz toasts all night. Mine might have been somewhat inappropriate, but no one knew what I was saying! We stayed for a few hours and then went home, where Chrystal and Laurie were waiting. We ended up just sitting around talking to my host family; it really is much easier with more friends around to help me communicate. I found out that my host father did in fact bride kidnap my host mother when she was 17. She said she cried, We watched a show similar to Wheel of Fortune and fed my puppy too.

I even got to wash my hair yet again and am preparing for a football game in Bishkek tomorrow that we are all going to watch, I am really excited. I have to teach at 8:50 and then we are off, with American flags in tow. Then banya day, I love the weekends.

I had a definite epiphany today while walking down the street. It came to me when a young girl said ‘hello, how are you, my name is… etc.” She was from one of our classes, and we taught her that. It really feels good. I love it here. I love being able to communicate in this language that I never would have even heard of otherwise. I love walking down the street with the cow herd looking for other volunteers. I love trying to talk to random sweet people who invite me in to their lives at the drop of a hat. These people are incredibly kind and generous. I love what we are doing here.

And then Mom and Katie called today to make it all even greater!!! I can’t wait until they come to visit.

This is Laurie, Chrystal and I before the game.

Saturday we went to a football game in Bishkek. This is Laurie and I before the game.

More random shots... one of Rebecca in front of the school in our village. Another of the 'vehicle' we took to go on our hike. One of my closet and my bedroom.

BEFORE AND AFTER!!!!

I'm afraid I no longer get to primp and curl or anything.... I just bundle up!

These are some random pictures. One is of Laurie and I at the Barana. One is of a random manhole that we seem to find every where. No one has fallen in yet. The other is of Xouhoa and I at the barana with some Kyrgz girls. Then there is a picture of the Turkey Airport. We were quite a group.

I hate my stomach...

October 18, 2005

I finally got to talk to my dad as well as my mom, so today was a good day. Got a new battery for the phone and everything is good. I turned on my old phone today for the first time since before I left. It was funny to see who the last people I talked to before I left were. You know who you are.

So tomorrow is another teaching day. I decided that first we are going to pick out English names together for the whole class. I am going to pass around a list of names for them to choose from. I decided to use old boyfriends and all my girlfriends’ names from home, to give myself a laugh.

I hung up a picture of my favorite bull rider today in my bedroom, and all the neighborhood girls came to look. It’s Chris Shivers riding a bull with a bottle of Jack Daniels., and I hung it with tape from my med kit. I totally have learned to improvise.

We got a puppy at our house. It just showed up this morning, and someone gave it a mat to lay on. Of course I had to take matters in to my own hands. The puppy, I am estimating, is about 5 days old. At the most. It fits in my hand, and barely opens its eyes. The bad thing is animals are not pets here, so it is hard for me to take care of a puppy, when society doesn’t really do that. I did manage to get through to the family that it is young, without a mother and needs to be warm all the time.

I was sitting on the floor feeding the puppy, which I haven’t named yet, (all though I was given the honor of choosing a name) when I had my first experience with the ‘women can’t sit on the ground without a mat tradition.’ Here it is a common belief that if women sit on the ground or concrete without a cushion, their ovaries will freeze and they won’t be able to have children. I was told to stand up immediately and not to ever sit down on the ground again. Anyway, I fed the puppy some milk, straight from our cow, and it sucked it off my fingers. I also gave it some bread soaked in milk, which it gobbled up. I don’t think it had been fed since it was taken away from its mother. No idea where it came from. But, its something for me to do, I love puppies. I just can’t keep this one.

Usually every evening we have dinner together and I always sit on the couch, while the rest of the family sits on the floor. Not by choice, they just won’t let me sit on the floor. So I was in my usual spot on the couch, and normally no one dares to sit next to me, but a younger man, probably in his late 20’s was sitting in my spot. I was told to sit next to him, because he didn’t have a wife. Usually my host mother dishes my plate too, as here they put one platter in the middle of the table with a bunch of spoons and everyone digs in. But I always get my own plate, one of the things they were told to do for us. My host mother always dishes me a heaping plate that I never finish, and pours my tea as well. But not last night. She let this strange man pour my tea, dish my food and sit directly next to me on the couch. It was very strange, but they kept saying suulou (which means beautiful) and jiggeytene (which means boyfriend). I just laughed and said jok (no) and went along with it – but really, I think my family wants to marry me off, and I think they just offer me up to anyone who comes to buy gas. I’m teasing, but it is pretty funny that every time a single man shows up, I’m the joke of the room.

Oh well, its actually pretty funny to try and respond to these men, with my broken Kyrgyz and there three words of English. I think my host mom is starting to realize I’m probably not going to marry into the family or anything like that.

So I got the puppy to sleep, but I want to sneak it into my room, and let it sleep next to my heater. I think the garage area is too cold for it. I’ll probably get disowned if I do that though. I wa thinking about naming the dog after a state… not sure which one though, No one really believes me that Idaho is a state here. They only like New York, California, Arizona and Virginia. (Only Virginia because last year’s volunteer was from Virginia).
Don’t ask me why they like Arizona either.

October 19, 2005

Happy Birthday Holli.

So, today I taught at 8 this morning, and after yet another night of throwing up in a bag in my bedroom, I almost didn’t make it to school. But I did, and it went well. We worked on things like more or less, months again, etc. I don’t teach again until Friday and I will be evaluated by the TEFL coordinator.

Tomorrow we head into Tokmok to email, which is really nice. It helps break up the week some.

We decided to name the puppy Tex, after Texas, don’t ask me why. I just wanted to name it after a state. So the puppy is doing well and is actually playing outside this afternoon, because we have pretty nice weather. I was able to go out without a coat today. I did get to skip the group lunch to rest, which was nice as well. I hope my stomach starts getting used to this country soon.

Dinner was pretty funny tonight. My favorite cousins, (I think they are cousins) came over for plov, and the youngest boy cam and got me for dinner. We first took pictures, but I don’t want to post it, as I am so washed out and pale from being dehydrated, that the pictures are pretty bad, and then they got out the beer and vodka. I said no to the vodka, of course, but I had a couple of glasses of beer, as this was the first time since I have been here that I have been allowed to drink anything besides tea. Not bad beer either. Of course we did toasts in Kyrgyz that I didn’t understand, but otherwise it was a good meal. I did manage to explain that I had a stomachache and only wanted a small amount of rice too. So communicating is getting better.

Another thing that I keep noticing here is that people are so much nicer to one another. When the girls at school arrive they kiss one another and the boys all shake hands. When relatives come to our house, they all kiss and hug, everyday, even if they stopped by the day before. This includes the young ones. Its pretty sweet, I guess, if you like being touched,

Not a bad night, I even got to wash my own hair with my new conditioner that my mother sent.

Oct. 20

I bought some nice boots today, with wool on the inside, so I don't think I will have trouble finding snow boots here.

We also bought kiwis that are the size of grapefruits and dried fruit at the bazaar. So I can stay away from the weird noodle and sheep fat dishes.

I hope the pictures work!!!

Cell phone got a new battery and works. I get email access on Wednesday night sop please write me before then, and scroll down to see some pics and read about this week.

the Hike...

These are all pictures from our 'nature walk' on my visit to the lake.

This is where I live. The garage is in the middle of the house, and the outhouse is around the back. With the animals.

This is my host family. And some extended family. None of them live with us all the time, just sometimes. They just visit, a lot.

Kid on a donkey

October 16, 2005

Finally a cell phone. And to think really I was only disconnected from the world for more than a month. But that’s a long time when you have had a cell phone glued to your ear since age 15. So my number is posted below, and I actually have service in my bedroom and all over my village. Haven’t had a phone call on it yet, but soon I know it will be ringing my ear off, right?

Today is laundry and banya day. Pretty exciting for most of us. Once again I had a rough night. I thought dinner last night would be okay, we had a hamburger helper type dish, only with sheep meat, noodles and potatoes. Not many potatoes though. But still, I found myself throwing up all night. I even prepared myself this time, I have a special bag next to my bed all the time. It is a long, cold run to the outhouse, and actually it makes the nausea worse. So anyway, I don’t think I can live here without eating potatoes, they are a staple food here. I don’t know what to do about it. Oh well. My med kit sits next to my bed too, its funny, its my best friend right now.

It could have been a combination of things though that made me sick yesterday. We went into the city and had a great time. First we went to the Peace Corps Headquarters, which is amazingly nice and has real bathrooms. We had a tour of the building and I had my site placement interview as well. Basically I was asked questions about my greatest strengths and what I thought my weaknesses were. Also if I would be confident in a rural area, and whether I had any preference in where I lived. I said that my only preference was that I must be somewhere that I had constant access to phones and email as this is my first trip away from home. I asked not to be isolated.

So we also picked up some tourist information at the office on Kyrgyzstan, including a guide to hotels. There is a five-star hotel in Bishkek, with prices ranging from $100 a night to $900 for a presidential suite. It is a Hyatt hotel. After the Peace Corps office we piled in our marchukas and went into the city to visit a museum. I’ve never been one for organized tours through museums, but because of language barriers, it was helpful. We walked downtown from the museum and to our complete astonishment we easily found an American Café, called Fatboy’s. Laurie, Rebecca and I went in and found a lot of other volunteers, as well as other Americans. Most were military men stationed here.

Everything was in English and was very welcoming. We ordered Amstel to drink, and chicken burritos with salsa and sour cream for lunch. It was such a treat. The staff spoke English and we were able to relax and enjoy a beer without anything to worry about. Then to top it all off, we only spent like $10 for everything.

After Fatboy’s we hit Zume; Its pronounced Zoom, but its written in cyrilliac, so I can’t spell it right. Five floors of madness. Electronics, shoes, cell phones, and pretty much anything you need. Very expensive though. Christal bought a computer bag, and Rebecca, Laurie, Christabelle and I got cell phones. We all spent less than $50 and got phones, chargers, sim cards and mobile cards. In order to use a phone over here you have to buy a sim card for the country and then units. You have to buy at least 200 units a month to keep your phone activated. Units are not equivilant to minutes. It takes a couple of units to talk for a minute. And to call America it takes like 70 units a minute, so that’s not really an option. It doesn’t take any units to receive calls from anywhere. So we all can be connected to home now, and each other as well. We use text messages mostly, as they only take 1/2 a unit.

After we got our phones we headed back to the villages, stopping briefly in Tokmok to email our phone numbers home and for me to post a picture on the blog. Now that I have it figured out, I will post a lot more pics.

Speaking of pictures, my host family and I did some posing last night with the extended family and my camera, so pictures of the family are coming soon.

October 17, 2005

So today was my first day of actually teaching. It was great. We are all doing a two-week practicum in our villages at the local schools in order to get some practice in before December comes. So we each have 4 classes per week. I am teaching 9A, which are around 14-15-16 year old kids. They were really good. I thought I would start out with basics and try to see what, if any English they knew. They all could count, write their names in English, because yes, they are way different in Kyrgyz, and tell me about the alphabet, animals, colors and fruits. So I have a basis. I got them to tell me their favorite animals and colors and we are all going to pick English names on Wednesday. Overall, the class went really well, as my Kyrgyz is quite limited, so I have to really stretch what I have. It was a lot of fun though, and they were actually somewhat well-behaved too. So a good day. We had classes in the morning and then language lessons in the afternoon today, so its quite a long day. Tomorrow I don’t teach, so I talked Bak into letting me go to Tokmok to the Internet. Rebecca and I are headed in around nine, and then back for language lessons in the afternoon. This weekend we are going to the bazaar again. I don’t really need to buy anything though, except maybe my own hot pot thing to heat water for my room.

I am going to try and post pictures with this blog entry as well. Hopefully they turn out. I have a bunch to post. By the way, my cell phone number is 011-996-502-129-375 in case someone forgot, or didn’t read below or something!!! The 011 is the international code, sometimes with calling cards it is already included, I guess just pay attention to the operator lady when you dial from a calling card.

Last night the power went out for the first time since I have been here. It was a little awkward. I was in the living room/kitchen waiting for a phone call from my parents, when it just shut off. For no apparent reason. I was with… the yellow hat guy, my host brother, a young cousin and my host mom. I was reading and they were watching the weird China Dolls show. Kind of a strange situation, to be completely in the dark and not really able to communicate. We lit a small candle and waited. It came back on but went back out after a while. It was probably out for about an hour or so. But, I waited patiently next to the phone for a couple of hours, hoping for a call – sometimes I don’t realize things, like here, the phone doesn’t work when the power is out. So basically, I was waiting for nothing. So if you did try to call mom and dad, it wouldn’t have worked. But I still waited. And then defeated, I went to sleep.

Kinsie – I didn’t forget your birthday!!! Can’t really call or anything, but you can call me, I hope it was an awesome day and that Michael got you some flowers, sometimes men don’t catch on to our hints… even if you drive by the store and point to the sign…

Anyway, Happy 23rd Birthday, I love you and miss you.

Rebecca was in the outhouse when the power went out, and the outside lights went off. She was yelling at her host brothers, saying ha ha, but then they came out and brought her a candle.

It was awesome to talk to my mother last night, Katie didn't answer when I tried to call this morning, but oh well. Now my phone will work better, I got a new battery at the bazaar and it it perfect. So start calling!!!

Photos just aren't working, but I am trying hard.

THis is supposed to be a photo, can someone tell me if it is or not? THen I will post more.

I GOT A CELL PHONE SO PLEASE CALL!!!

My number is 011-996-502-129-375
This is my cell number so call anytime!!! Phone cards at uniontelecard.com



October 12, 2005

Well I caused a little commotion with a few of my blog entries, basically incriminating myself for stupid things. So rightly so Father, I’ll take you calling me a twit, but just this once. I had better start thinking about my actions a little more.

Anyway, everyone knows I am a firm believer in good journalism, and stating the facts, so that won’t keep me from that.

And just a note: All though my dad never signs birthday cards himself, he is the greatest dad I could ask for. Raising three girls, especially three girls like us, (spoiled (Me), somewhat selfish (Katie) and a little wild and hyper (Holli) was pretty admirable, as I think we turned out alright. He is thoughtful, caring and will never cease in trying to make his little girls happy. I love you so much father.

So today was another hub day. We have reached the one-month mark and our program managers have began conducting site interviews. We will find out where we are headed on Nov. 2. I hope to have a site with fairly reliable Internet access and cellular phone reception, all though after my recent escapade, they might not want me near the Internet!

Tomorrow is a language day and a chance to go to the local post office as well. We did get to run to the bank today after we got four more shots. I now have had more than a dozen shots and have four more coming. Today was a flu shot, tetanus, mumps and another rabies series. Pretty painful. We also had a safety and security session which I have come to realize is pretty important, as there are definitely a lot of safety issues here. Sometimes I really don’t think, hence the name of my blog. Maybe I should call it Legally blonde meets the peace corps or something like that.

So the yellow hat guy hasn’t been by to visit me at all lately. Probably a good thing. Especially since he has horses at his house.

Today began as a pretty shitty day, but ended up wonderful. First I got a package. I feel bad, as some people are still waiting for one, and I am on my second with more on the way. I just explained that I am really spoiled, but I am a great sharer. We all ate orange tick tacs on the ride home from the site. My package was completely intact. It had DVD’s, dental floss, conditioner, slippers, wet wipes, vitamins, candy, gum, makeup, A USB STICK!!!! And more in it. A great package with peanut butter too, I forgot. We were eating it with our fingers in the marchuka this afternoon. So good.

And then to top off the day – I got a phone call from my glorious mother!!! At my host family’s house! So to the parent’s out there, you can call your kids, get them to pass on the numbers. It may take a couple of tries, but it works. My parents got international calling cards from uniontelecard.com for a good price. I am getting my cell phone this Saturday, so soon I will be sending out my new phone number so people can start calling whenever they want. Totally stoked for that.

The entire group of us – all 62 or so, are headed into Bishkek this weekend to check out the Peace Corps headquarters and a local museum as well. Then we have 2 hours of free time in the city. Our village will be taking the free time to set up cell phones, but because I had verizon before, my phone is locked and I can’t really unlock it from year and add a sim card, so I will have to buy one here. Oh well though. Still not too expensive. Some places you can use credit/debit cards, maybe. We also found out that there is an American buffet at the Hyatt in Bishkek for like $4.

I am headed to bed, going to watch Double Jeopardy tonight, and if Christal’s dad is reading this, she is not feeling too well, and has a pretty icky cold, but we are taking good care of her.

I can read comments now, and I unlocked them, I think, so anyone should be able to leave them without signing in as a user. Thanks for the loyal readership once again, sorry about the entry before this, if anyone has questions about the original material, you can email me at filomena9@hotmail.com for the inside scoop.


October 13, 2005


ITS REALLY COLD HERE.
Umm so its only October and I am all ready pretty cold. I broke out the long underwear this morning for my walk to school. Long johns, black dress pants, socks and Uggs, and then long johns, a thermal over those, a cashmere sweater over that, and then my down coat to top it all off. I was warm as can be, except for my ears. I think I’ll add a hat to the outfit tomorrow morning. Its pretty cold at 7 am here. It definitely warmed up a bit as the day progressed, but I never actually took any, and I mean any, layers off. Down coat and all. The classrooms don’t have heat, none of the buildings really do.

This morning I was kind of a wus too. I couldn’t face the cowherd that I usually walk through, so I chickened out and ran to the side and waited scared for all of them to pass. Something about wearing a bright red coat made me feel nervous. Normally, they don’t phase me.

We learned more tenses today in language lessons, like the simple present, pronoun endings, the imperative, negative pronouns and more. It getting tough. Not that learning the language has ever been easy.

Rebecca and I treated ourselves to the first Pepsi we have seen since we have been here, and went to my house to watch a DVD on my computer after class. Despite the extreme carbonation, it wasn’t half bad. We fell asleep for a while, but I remembered to turn on the heater in my room, so it wasn’t too bad. I have taken to brushing my teeth at night in my room with a water bottle that I sawed the top off. That way I don’t have to go outside to use the sink contraption at night. It’s really cold out there at night.

My room isn’t freezing, but I do sleep in my long underwear, and then my sweats and a thermal and my socks with my new slippers over them to stay warm. Oh yeah, then I have a fleece blanket and a big tooshook thing (that’s what we call the blankets here), its kind of like a big mat. And I have my Dale Earnhart Jr. fleece that I wrap around my head. Soon I will sleep in my sleeping bag as well. I am trying to hold off on the sleeping bag until November.

Not much to do here in the afternoons, so today I cleaned my room again, and organized everything. I even made a collage on the wall from magazines and all my favorite quotes and pictures. Also, I made a mobile that is hanging from the ceiling in my room, of my favorite Cowboy poem. Now my room is a lot more comfortable and homey. I’m reading the books mom sent, and very excited about having a cell phone by Saturday.

Oh yeah, we went to the local school today to try and prepare for next week’s practicum. We all will be teaching four classes a week for the next two weeks in our villages. I am teaching 9th form, A. They 9th grade is split into A and B, as are most grades. I met my students. There will be around 35 in my class. It is not going to be easy. The current English teacher will sit in with me, but unfortunately, she doesn’t speak English. So, I don’t think that will be much of a help. But hey, oh well, I’ve always thought the best way to learn something is to be thrown right into it. I tried to do a quick assessment of the students’ English levels today, but it seems like all they know conversation wise is hello, how are you, what is your name. That’s it. So I’m starting at the beginning. With the alphabet, numbers and basic greetings. Then I’ll plan the rest of the two weeks from there. Since Halloween is on the way, we all plan to incorporate the holiday in as well. Should be a tough, tiring couple of weeks. You wouldn’t believe how exhausted your brain is after trying to understand a million women speaking a mile a minute in a foreign language all day. I’m passed out by nine almost every night.


October 14, 2005

So I figured out that the potatoes are making me sick. And wouldn’t you just know that they are actually my favorite thing to eat here.

Today I think I had quite the afternoon. I fell asleep early last night and woke up pretty early this morning. It was cold. I wore both my long underwear top and bottom this morning for the walk to school. And a scarf on my head. We had language lessons from 8-12 today. I actually felt like I was learning quite a bit, and on the way to school I saw my first dead animal. In a giant man hole. Pretty gross. I try to avoid manholes, but sometimes you can’t help but look in them.

We finished lessons and caught cabs into the city today. Bak wanted us to have a little fun on a Friday afternoon. So we drove in, following a man with a small motor scooter pulling a little trailer with a dead and half butchered cow in it. The head was hanging off the back. Very pleasant start to our afternoon. We went to the Tokmok bazaar. I think I explained bazaars previously, but for those who don’t know, it is a giant open market, selling all sorts of good. The items range from clothes to rugs to shoes to food to animals to electronics. You supposidely can bargain, but rally come on… who would want to bargain with ‘rich Americans?’

The girls and I headed into the bazaar with freshly exchanged money, ready to do some shopping. And I’m not gonna lie… I bought a hair dryer. And I am pretty damn excited about it. Straight hair here I come. Rebecca got a glue stick, body spray, nail clippers and some other random items. Xouhoa got a radio so we can listen to the BBC now in our village. We looked at a lot of random items, and Rebecca and I got new J-Lo sunglasses, which are really popular over here. Bak bought a new button up shirt, and we looked at cell phones. They are cheaper to buy in Bishkek, where we are headed tomorrow. It was funny, most of the booths at the bazaar are Russian, and everyone laughs at us when we try to bargain in Kyrgyz. I have to ask the Russian women to stop speaking Russian and switch to Kyrgyz. But they like volunteers, so usually they are pretty nice.

After the bazaar, Bak took us to the Internet, which happens to be in the same building as a hair salon. So Christabelle got her hair cut, and Rebecca and I got ours washed and ‘styled.’ Let me just say that I was so horrified by the way my hair looked after the process, that I actually put my scarf back on. First she washed it with soap in a sink that I had to bend over. I had to wait for 20 minutes for her to heat a bucket of water to rinse it out. Then she used a round bristle brush with pokeys all over it to straighten my tangled mess of hair that she created. And when drying it, she only tried the bottom, leaving the top half of my hair flattened to my head and cold. I looked worse than I did when I walked in. Luckily though, I bought that blow dryer to day and took care of it when I got home. At least now I can feel confident about my hair again. We took a taxi back to the village where Rebecca and enjoyed spoonfuls of peanut butter and then parted ways. We are not allowed to sleep over at anyone’s houses anymore. So now I am alone at my house until tomorrow.

I got fed plain ramen noodles for dinner tonight. But, remembering the Peace Corps’ motto of being flexible and such, I improvised, found some sauce that resembles ketchup (slightly) and made my own version of spaghetti. Not half bad. Clean hair and fake spaghetti can do wonders for your spirits.

I even spent part of the evening sizing and downloading photos to post, so hopefully in Bishkek I will be able to post them. I am also trying to prepare lesson plans, as I start teaching on Monday morning at 8 am. I learned all the commands I will need to use in Kyrgyz in class today, so Sunday will be a day of studying. Oh yeah, for those who keep asking for my address, here it is again: (It will change on Dec. 4)

97 Lenina Street, RUPS
Mailbox # 23
722140, Kant City
Kyrgyz Republic
Elizabeth Dalessio

My phone number is 011-996-313-877-333. This is the number to my host family’s home. Anyone can call, but just realize that it is 13 hours later here, (So right now it is 7:30 on Friday night and in Idaho it is 6:30 Friday morning) and that I am the only one who speaks English. When someone answers, they usually say Hallo. You just have to say Elizabeta over and over slowly, and they will get me. If I am not home you will here the word Joke, which means no. I will have a cell phone though ASAP so calls to that can be at any time.

Packages generally have been taking about 10 days to one month to arrive and must include a list of contents inside. They have to be taped up ferociously. Meaning, wrapped up and then taped with packing tape all around the whole box, and then wrapped in brown paper and taped again with typed address labels. Letters only take about 2 weeks to get here.

It is a sight at the hub site to see us all run to the driver who delivers our mail. He usually has around 10 boxes and a stack of letters, and is mobbed by all 62 of us. Mail is one of the things we all look forward to.

I got to read up on All My Children the other day, so I know what is going on, and thanks Lindsy for sending me recaps. Sometimes here, I watch the Nanny, but only a Russian version with look-a-likes. Mostly I just read.

Well, that’s about all I guess for this week. Hopefully when this is posted it will have a link to my pictures as well.

Thanks for all the continuous love and support from everyone… it’s awesome to have such a great following and the heartwarming comments.

Adriane and Katie say hi to their parents as well. They love you very much.

Kinsie and Linds thanks for the great emails this week, hope your new house is great Kins, I’m sure it is, you always persevere and congratulations on the new promotion, I’m so proud of you. Lindsy wait for me to have a wedding…

Alison give that man of yours a hug for me, I hope you two are marvelous as always.

Holli, sorry to have to miss your birthday but be safe, have fun, stay way from lame frat boys (You know who the good ones are) and drink one for me. I love you.

Katie – you tell Ev that I want a picture of my favorite cowboy in his best man outfit ASAP!!! This country is definitely lacking in cowboys.

Mom and Dad – thank you for the great packages. Its funny that I am still spoiled rotten even from 100 million miles away. I say it a lot but I have great parents. Life may take me all over this crazy world, but one thing is for certain – you start and end with your family.

IM sorry for the confusion

A lot of my original last blog entry was erased so it doesn't make much sense. I'm sorry I will clarify later.

MY CRAZY WEEK AT THE LAKE

October 5, 2005

A little bit of freedom and …. CEREAL!!!!!!!!

It is so nice to have some freedom. Yesterday we headed into Tokmok at around 7 am to get to the bus station to head to Lake Issycl. Christal and I were dropped off and the rest of the group headed to Bishkek to catch taxis and marchukas from there. We are all assigned to different sites with current volunteers throughout the oblasts (kind of like states) in the country. There are seven oblasts in Kyrgyzstan, and we serve in six of them. Those going to the southern oblasts had to suffer through long taxi rides over mountain passes and such. I on the other hand got pretty lucky, at least I think, in my site destination,

I took a marchuka with Rich, a K-12 volunteer (I am a k-13, just the name of the group of volunteers you came with). There were about 11 of us going to various places around the lake. The marchuka wasn’t too full, as we paid to have a private ride, and these are much nicer giant van-like things, as opposed to the Volkswagons.

I headed to the North Shore, to a village called Chong-Sai Ory. Or something like that. Others went to the south shore, which was a much longer ride. I am staying with Maya, a volunteer from Illinois. She teaches at a school with around 500 students, grades 4, 5 and 10, 11. We went to the main town surrounding the villages on the North Shore, Cholpon Ata. Roselle, another volunteer, has an apartment in the city, and it is kind of a hang out for nearby volunteers. The North Shore is a tourist part of the country, and because of that, housing options are nicer and the general state of the villages is better than other places I have seen so far. The volunteers who live here say the beaches are great in the summer, and the only downfall is being constantly mistaken for a tourist.

Of course I feel that I would probably be comfortable here, as it may be a tourist attraction, but it is still a damn far cry from any resort town I have ever been to. How many resorts have I been to where the outhouse is a pit toilet out back?

Roselle’s apartment has two bedrooms and sleeps 8 pretty comfortably, as it is an apartment that is meant for tourists. She has to leave in the summer, as it is rented out to vacationers, but right now, she is definitely living well. She has her own bathroom with a toilet and a shower, a kitchen with a stove, oven and a fridge. And then two bedrooms with a couple of beds in each, and a living area with a couch and a desk and stuff. The apartment comes furnished with pots and pans and dishes too, Hopefully I can get something like that. The rent during the year is about 1000 som per month, or $25. Her school, a Russian school, pays the rent for her.

The other volunteers come to her apartment to shower and bake, and last night they made spaghetti for us with tomatoes, eggplant, noodles, jalapenos, peppers and lots of spices. They have quite a collection of spices, as they shipped them from America. Tonight we made pizza in the village I am staying at. Maya lives with a family in a small house just minutes away from her school. Today I went with her to the school and her students asked me questions in English. They were totally a handful. As the 11th graders never shut up and giggled and flirted the entire class period. Maya said sometimes the boys don’t come to class, but it turns out to be better that way, as they are so disruptive. They know that they aren’t going to go further than high school and will just be working in the fields, so they aren’t that motivated. That’s a big problem with teaching here.

Tomorrow we are heading into town to go to the bazaar, as Maya is going to show me some items to buy to save my sanity. Like cereal and milk. And cucumbers. And a converter and plugs. Because, yes, we had cereal for breakfast this morning. Real corn flakes and pretty good milk. And I was so, so excited. I am going to stock up on it tomorrow and hide it when I get back.

The plan for the rest of the visit is to observe a few more classes and then head up into the mountains on Friday to do some hiking with Rich and the rest of my group, (the K13s visiting the North Shore). We go back to our training villages on Saturday morning. I am going to get a shower at the apartment tomorrow as well. I’m loving this site visit. Too bad, its just a visit though, it has no link to where we could end up permanently. I’m going to try to plead my case well though in my site interview next month, so I can be up here, as it is gorgeous and filled with good people. It is also close to the capital, which makes me feel a little safer, as there is talk of revolution again. Not that it will affect me, but the thought of a revolution in a country just bigger than Nebraska, is a little frightening.

I have learned so much from the volunteers here already. If I want to take the GRE’s again, I can from here. I also can apply for different types of grants in order to improve my site if it needs it, and I can get books from Darien Book Aid in Connecticut, so dad try www.dba.darien.org. I read one of the books today that Maya got for her classroom. She also had a previous volunteer in her school that left behind a good resource center in the school.

I got to try out my sleeping bag last night, it kept me very warm, as it is very cold here right now. I am happy to have, so thanks for giving it up Mother dearest, along with everything else.

It is really nice to be near volunteers and get a firsthand account of what we will be doing, come Dec 4. Makes me not so nervous to be thrown in a classroom in the middle of the semester. We hear that the next group of volunteers, the K14s, will come here in June, so that way they will be sworn in in September, right when school starts, and will leave when school ends in May. Makes a lot more sense.

Pretty worn out today, so Maya and I are watching Bridget Jones 2 and heading to bed.


THE REST OF THE WEEK… One Word. Crazy.

Maya and I packed up my stuff and headed into Cholpon Ata, the main town in the North Shore on Thursday afternoon to meet Roselle, Rich, Joyce and the rest of the trainees. We flagged down a taxi, and I had forgotten to mention before that my backpack is really really big. I swear I didn’t pack that much for the trip to the lake, but with my sleeping bag and hiking stuff, it just ended up that way. The taxi dropped us off at Internet, where we checked our emails and met the rest of the group. Maya had some errands to run, and left me with the rest of the group, to walk back to Roselle’s place. Now usually I wouldn’t have minded the walk, but with my backpack weighing close to 50 pounds, and here apartment being over a mile away, it was a pretty long walk.

From there we all decided to go and hang out at the beach for a while. We took a marchuka together down to the next village, that has a private resort called Aurora. We weren’t allowed in, but we went to the public beach next to it and Rich taught us how to play Kyrgyz card games. We also found gummy worms at the bazaar so we had those as well. (I said before, things like that don’t come around very often, so gummy worms are a nice treat). It started to get pretty cold, so we headed back to Cholpon Ata to cook dinner and watch movies, and get ready for a day of hiking. The girls have a peace corps cook book, and made rice with curry, tofu and raisins for dinner. We watched Hitch on my computer and then went to sleep, as we had to meet Rich and his trainees in his village at 9:30 in the morning.

This is where the craziness began.

We got to Rich’s village after we hit the bazaar to buy bread and cheese for lunch. Raabia, (a trainee from Atlanta) and I tried to buy cheese, and forgot that things here are in kilos, not pounds. We ended up with 2.2 pounds of cheese.

After that fiasco, we got into an empty marchuka. But not for long, as the originally 10-seater, jammed more than 18 people in for the ride. Women just pass their babies off to whoever can hold them, and more people just keep on piling in until the driver shuts the door. (Remember a marchuka is like a VW van with a little bit more room). We got to Rich’s village, almost taking out one cow. They just swerve around the cows and try to avoid hitting people. No one ever drives on the correct side of the road and no one ever follows speed limits, as they don’t have them. Also, you purchase your drivers license here. No classes or anything like that. You just buy one.

From Rich’s village, he had hired a private man to drive as into the mountains to hike. He was waiting for us in a truck that looked like a homemade army truck with a square back and a front. We all piled in, and he got out a metal tool and winded it up to start it. Seriously, the man winded up the truck, and then the engine turned over. I have never seen anything like it. We started off, and let me tell you, it wasn’t a smooth ride. Every time he went to shift into second gear in this beast, it stalled, jammed and jerked us forward. He never got past second. We putted along for a while, and then he gave up.

Rich had been sitting up front and came back and told us that the driver’s friend had given him some bad gas, so it wasn’t going to work. He and Rich walked to a gas station and came back with some oil to try. He put oil in and then winded it up again, and we were off. For about 10 minutes. Then he gave up, and found a phone, called some buddies, and they picked us up in two taxies. So we headed up the mountain in two taxis, (taxis here are not like taxis in America, I’ll post pictures soon, so you can see what these cars look like, and see the wind up truck, as I took a picture of him doing it), ours was an old beater, like most, and every time we went over a rock I could feel it though the floor on my feet. We bottomed out every two minutes on the drive up to the mountains. Rich chatted away with the driver, and I can’t wait to be able to speak better.

The taxis dropped us off at a trail/road, you can drive up the mountains if you want. We started our hike. There was 8 of us, and this was our first high altitude hike since we have been here. The road followed a beautiful river the entire way, which reminded me of home. The water here though is so much more pure, in the rivers and the lakes. They do not pollute their water at all, just their land. The lake is also saltwater, in case I haven’t mentioned that, and was so clear and sparkly, you could see reflections, and the blue in the water.
W hiked in more than 6 miles before we stopped for lunch. We ate our bread and cheese along the river, in an open valley near a random horse corral. Horses were all over up there. After lunch we started the second leg of our hike, as we met some men who guaranteed us that the mountain lake we were looking for was only a kilometer away. So we headed up the mountain, the path was all uphill the rest of the way, and a lot rougher. We had to slow our pace way down but after 3 kilometers or so, we were up pretty damn high. We never found the lake. We had hiked in more than 8 miles, and we had to turn back, or we wouldn’t have made it by dark.

We rested for a little bit, and then started to head down. And I’m not going to lie, but we were tired and worn out. It was a long uphill hike, and the altitude made my ears ring and head spin. But, I found a horseshoe, and had just been thinking about how I didn’t bring a horseshoe to hang over my door, like Katie and I did back home. So I thought I was going to have good luck and was feeling great, and then we got in this truck that licked like it should have been filled with filled with chickens, only it had about 20 Russian kids piled in the back, singing songs and screaming, ‘I love you white girl.’ They picked us up. Rich got in the back with the kids, and found out they were from a school PE class, and had been harvesting up in the mountains all day. We sat in the front, and picked up the rest of our group along the way.

I took a shower right way, to wash out all my scrapes. My first real shower since I have been here, and I didn’t get to enjoy it, as it stung! Machaela, another trainee and Raabia cleaned out all the scrapes and then we all went to a close by restaurant to eat. The restaurant was supposed to serve Turkish food, but it didn’t.

Almost all of us ordered a chicken dish with pineapple and melted cheese. Sounds pretty good? Then you get it. The chicken WAS NOT COOKED. And when I say not cooked, I mean, they didn’t even try to cook it, It was just raw. We all sent it back.

After dinner the boys picked up some beverages and the girls baked apple pies. We got to the apartment and a storm hit right away. No water or anything. I was the only one who got a shower before they lost power. Apparently, this is common. We had my computer, and Rich’s computer to listen to music with on battery. We also had my ipod with a full battery and another one. They turned out to be valuable as they doubled as flashlights too. The guys bought vodka, and lots of it. We had shots, toasted Kyrgyzstan, and ate apple pie in candle light. (Gas stove). We played drinking games and such until three in the morning



We walked to the telecom, about a mile. We had no idea what the price to call America was, but I knew if I went another day without calling home, I would go crazy, so we went ahead and called. Usually at Internet places it is about 6 som per minute. I got a hold of mom, thank goodness.

After talking to her for 25 minutes, I thought I would pay and see how much it was and then call Katie. IT WAS 26 SOM A MINUTE. That’s a lot. I paid 500 som for a 25-minute phone call. Las time I called home I paid like 100 for 40 minutes. I spent all my bazaar money at the telecom, by mistake, and so no cereal to take home. Oh well. Now I know, that telecoms are for emergencies only. I will be getting my cell phone as soon as possible to avoid things like that. Then I won’t have to pay to receive calls from home.

We went back to the apartment and helped clean up, and then decided to head back to Tokmok. It was pretty rough carrying my backpack. Even just to the taxi.

Rich put half of us in one taxi to the bus station or atovoxil and the rest in another. Our taxi driver was insane. I must have really bad luck. Raabia, Alex and I ended up in another village in the middle of nowhere. The man told us to get out, that we had only paid enough to get to this pot, in which we had no idea where we were. Raabia was screaming at him in English, Alex and I were saying atovoxil over and over, and he just laughed. We had out huge backpacks and were feeling pretty helpless, when out of no where, a volunteer stationed in that village that we had met the day before, Josh drove by on his way to a new site. (Josh is a business volunteer and his main project is getting fish in the lake). He helped us into a new taxi that took us to the station. Rich was gone, off trying to find us. We found everyone else and we got into our marchuka, exhausted, sore and ready to head back to our villages.

Raabia and I shared my Ipod, which miraculously still had battery. The power hadn’t come back on at eh apartment when we left. The man seriously was driving over 120 kilometers an hour through the windy mountain road. You had to close your eyes, or you would scare yourself to death. We got back in record time. We were all so exhausted and Raabia and I were so sore that we could barely move, let alone carry our bags. We were supposed to find taxis to our villages. Usually we pay 20 som each way. We found one that would take three of us for 100 som. So we went for it, as my village is out of the way, so we thought it was a good deal. He didn’t go to my village, and refused to take me there. So I was stuck at Raabia’s until our LCFs, remember, mine is Bak, found me a private car for 100 som. Not a great day. I got back just before dark and the driver seemed to think I liked it when he swerved at people in the road. Not a fun ride. No one was home at my house when I got there. I had to wait outside, so exhausted that I almost fell asleep in the yard. My host father came home and unlocked the door, after I sat in the yard and explained to people that no one was home to sell them gas. Not fun. I explained to him what happened, and thankfully they gave me a bowl of soup and sent me to bed at 7. I slept until 8 this morning and only woke up twice.

I wanted to do my own laundry today, as I feel bad having someone else do it for me. SO I did. It was kind of fun. We use a big machine and then hand rise and scrub, then rinse again and hang on the line. When I went outside to get water I noticed that the neighbor had something in his trunk, moving. He opened it and pulled out a big goat. We untied its feet and lead it to the backyard. I thought how nice, a new goat in the neighbor hood. I figured it was for milk or something. Then when I came out to hang my clothes, it was hanging from a tree. So, another lesson learned. Don’t get attached to any farm animals around here.

All the girls stopped by to see how my visit was and how I was feeling, so that made the day a lot better. We visited and compared villages for awhile, and then for the first time since I got here, I got my own private banya. (I asked Bak to explain that I needed privacy to wash my scrapes out). Maybe I will get to do this from now on, but probably not.

Overall it was quite a week. Rich seemed to sum it up pretty well – ‘An Adventure to write home about.’

He sure is right.

** Just a quick explanation to those other parents that are reading this. I am a homebody, meaning this is my first trip outside of the states and away from home. I was that kid who didn’t go stay at a friends house until high school. I was the child that cried and had to go home in the middle of the night and here, I am the one who uses most of my money just to call home. And won’t have it any other way. So I call home a lot, email even more and update my blog as often as possible, but I will pass on messages to your sons and daughters! **

October 10, 2005

Happy Birthday Justin.

MY FIRST PERSONAL VISITOR FROM THE DIRECTOR

Word sure does travel fast. I don’t really even know whom I told about falling off the horse but the news spread quick.

I had my second bout with the stomach illness this morning and had to stay home from lessons due to dehydration. I slept all morning and read the entire Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I was forced out of bed by my host mother for tea at around 1 in the afternoon, completely against my will. I mean really, I was in my pajamas, with my glasses on, no makeup (not that I really wear it much anymore) and looking pretty miserable. But no more sleeping for me, I had to have lunch with a bunch of local women. I was given a massive bowl of plov (veggies, rice, OIL (the cause of my illness) and meat) and had about two bites before I think she realized I was about to get sick all over the table and let me go back to bed. I guess even a call from the Peace Corps Medical Officer didn’t keep her from cooking and making me eat.

Anyway, I did get to go back to bed, but at about 4 pm I got another knock on the door. This time it was the Director of the program. I braced myself for the worst. The director doesn’t usually make house calls, especially to little villages outside of the city…

He sat down in my chair and asked me how I was doing and if the horse won. I laughed and told him the story. He comes from a ranch in White Water, Montana and told me that he understands that it’s hard to follow the rules all of the time. He was very nice about the whole thing. He told me stories of his ranch days, and we visited for a while. Basically he just wanted to make sure I was okay.

But, he is going to make an example of me to the other 61 volunteers tomorrow at hub day. I guess I am pretty used to ‘learning from my mistakes’ so I guess everyone can learn from this one!

I guess my “lucky” horseshoe turned out to be somewhat lucky after all.

Week 2 and some of Week 3

September 28, 2005

I GOT MY PACKAGE TODAY!!!!! I HAVE THE BEST PARENTS EVER. Nothing was stolen or out of place!!! It took three weeks to get here and was wonderful, I hate to say it though, but I think I will probably have finished the book in it by tonight. I can’t get enough books, I swear.

Today we had safety and security sessions and medical sessions. We learned all the different reasons we might get med evacuated from here, and found out that we are covered by the United States Government Air evacuation ambulance that costs 50,000 to use. So if we are seriously injured or sick, we are well taken care of. But that’s for serious injuries. They said someone had a ruptured appendix last year and didn’t realize it, then went into a coma. So that kind of thing.

I had had it today with no internet, so I took it upon myself to find a café. Little did I know there was one three minutes from our hub site. Our hub site is an equal opportunity school and daycare center. I skipped out on the safety session on dealing with unwanted attention (I did live in Sandpoint and frequent the Long Bridge Bar after all), and ran to the internet café. I got an hour’s worth of email for 20 som, and got to read messages and try to write back to some of them. I am very sorry if I didn’t get them all, I know I didn’t, but we are going back in the morning. I am going to try and make a couple of calls in the morning too. I got to talk to mom and dad, which was the greatest thing ever. The package was wonderful, and thanks for not being upset that it was 4:30 in the morning. You go away and realize who your true friends are, how much you love your family and how much everyone loves you back!!!! I got a birthday card from Edie, Bryan and the boys today, it was amazing!!!! These are the kind of things that keep me going!

I miss Seth and Kyle and watching MTV with them everyday. I have no clue what’s on All My Children either. And to be honest, I forgot about it until now, but Linds check it out for me would ya!!!?

Today when I got home from Tokmok, I had 12 women at the house and we had a formal dinner. I felt a lot more comfortable this time and figured out a few things they said here and there. We of course had sheep and rice, but the atmosphere was the best part. I figured out that everyone was family in some way, whether aunt, uncle, great grandma etc. They age faster here. They also do not recycle, do not dispose of waste well and pollute everything. Garbage just gets thrown on the ground or burned. When kids have candy they toss the wrappers anywhere. THERE ARE NO GARBAGE CANS ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY!

The exciting news is that we are getting some freedom!!!! On Tuesday I am taking a bus North to Lake Issical (spelled wrong). I will stay with a volunteer for 5 days. She is going to let me shadow her in her daily routine and will show me around. Tomorrow I open a bank account in the city. Everyone is doing this visit next week, some have up to 14 hours of traveling to get to their practice sites. I only have 2 at the most. But the lake is supposedly beautiful. Just a lot of radioactivity in the water. I am really excited to have some independence though and to do some traveling.

At our medical session today they passed around oreos. The excitement in the group was wild. Its funny what we get excited about now. When they passed out hand sanitizer to everyone, cheers erupted. Same thing with American toilet paper, (crepe paper is what they use here). We get excited over the littlest things. It really makes you appreciate what you have. I can’t even bring myself to wear one of the pairs of jeans that I brought here. They cost me more than some people here make in 6 months. That’s tough. When I put things into perspective I realize that the amount of money my parents spent on just my braces alone is more than some people will make here in there lives. It is hard, and sad. We truly are lucky to be Americans. People here have never even seen a computer and are lucky to have telephones or even electricity in their village.

I am so spoiled.

Thanks for my loyal readers!!!! I hope this isn’t dull and boring for you guys, I try to make it entertaining to a point, but apparently the government reads this too and holds it against me if I do anything bad on my blog.

SO I will take this moment to state that THIS BLOG IN NO WAY IS AFFILIATED WITH THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT OR PEACE CORPS.

Have to write that every once and a while.


So I feel like I write too much, and this last entry was too much to read, so I will quit now. Kinsie congrats on 9 months of marriage!!!!!
Thanks everyone for the kind emails and thoughts!
Lots of Love
Betsy


Sept. 29, 2005

I got to check my email again today, but just for one second. It was a quick trip, as we went into the city this morning to open local bank accounts. I walked to the bus stop this morning and had my first experience with rowdy cows in a herd. One of them actually touched me as I made my way through them, but it was just to ummm mount another one. I saved my lunch from yesterday (we get bagged lunches when we go into the city) and fed dogs on my walk. Usually for lunch Myriam packs me an apple, some bread and either an egg or a chunk of disgusting weird meat. I usually feed it to dos, but eat, the apple and the bread. A lot of times the apples have worms, so we have to check it out carefully. My leatherman is getting a lot of use. The apples come straight off the tree in the backyard, as everyone here harvests apples. The season is just about over.

We went to a nice internet café today, but since I had an hour online yesterday, I gave my time up so others could check theirs. I did read mom’s email and Camilla’s too, so thanks for those. Those kind of emails really keep me motivated here.

After emailing and new bank accounts we headed back for more language lessons. You can add now to my vocabulary, how to say NO!!! I’M NOT MARRIED AND I DON’T WANT TO BE. Also, foods, dishes, numbers, basic phrases like I’m tired, I’m sick, I’m hungry, I’m dirty etc. I can say the entire 34-letter alphabet without hesitation, which is impressive as there are 4 different variations just of the letter O alone. (O, ooh, Eww, Oooeww). The H here is really an N and the P is really and RR. Tough. Also it is okay in this culture to be really late for things, and to not do what you say you are going to. For example, the local post office says it will be open from 10-2 daily, but, we go their almost everyday and I have never got to mail anything.

I borrowed Sweet Home Alabama from Xouhoa, so I get to watch that tonight on my computer after supper. Last night I found out was another part of the funeral that I went to last weekend. It is almost laundry day already, but I don’t really have much since last week. Also we banya on Saturday too!!!!! So excited for that. Bucket bathing is not all its cracked up to be. I did however get to wash my hair on Monday night. (Its Thursday). Hopefully again tonight.

Sunday we are heading into Bishkek with Bak (Just a clarification. Bak is my LCF or language and culture facilitator. He lives in our village and is a professor from a Kyrgyz Univesity. He works for the Peace Corps and we have one LCF for every 5 volunteers. He is like our parent, friend, translator, body guard and coordinator all in one. He speaks English well enough to have written the only Kyrgyz/English dictionary available). Bishkek is the capital of K-stan and is known for its bazaar. At the bazaar you can purchase absolutely anything. I plan to buy airmail envelopes and winter boots. Maybe a hot pot as well, as we are limited in heating water in the winter. Someone bought one today for 380 som or under $10 American. We head out to our site visits on Tuesday.

Enough for today, more tomorrow as we prepare for our culture day coming up on Saturday. We are sacrificing a sheep at a monument in our village and all of the other volunteers are coming to eat and learn traditional dances. So basically, we are having a party. And there is another disco at the school on Friday night…


September 30, 2005

I met a good looking’ man here last night, which is funny because I thought it would never happen. My host brother had a friend come over, and he told my host mother that I was ‘Cuulo” or beautiful. So I got out my Kyrgyz dictionary and pointed to the word for handsome man, and I think I started a riot at the dinner table! I don’t know what anyone said from there, but I will probably be getting bride kidnapped soon, so I am preparing. I don’t know his name so we refer to him as yellow hat guy.

I sat with the family last night and went over numbers, days of the week, months and terms for things like snow, blizzard and cold. I wanted to be prepared for what’s to come during the loooong winter here. I watched Russian MTV again too, and apparently since most people don’t know English slang, they just play the unedited versions of most videos. So when I heard Eminem rapping freely during dinner I was a little bit shocked.

More language lessons today. We start at 8, so we can finish earlier in the day. Today Bak let us play word games with our vocab and personal pronoun endings. Much easier way of learning all the different tenses. We finally got to the post office, and it was actually open! The woman there explained that she is closed on Mondays, so we have to come Tuesday through Friday. She also didn’t have enough stamps for our envelopes, so not all of us got to send all of our letters. She promised to start bringing more in from the city. It takes like 7 Kyrgyz stamps to send a letter, to America, which cost 11 som, or 22 cents.

Bad news, we were informed that Christmas packages must be sent by Nov. 1 in order to make it here before Christmas, as the post slows down even more in the winter. No guarantees on arrival either. Packages get here quickly from America, they just sit in the capital post office to be sorted, as American packages don’t have a lot of priority.

I also found out that we are literally sacrificing a sheep tomorrow at the ‘Barana,’ which is a Russian monument here. Oh yeah, and if I wanted to buy a donkey, it only costs me 800 som, or about $19.50. And, a horse costs twice as much as a car does. But, because the Peace Corps specifically prohibits riding a horse or bike without a helmet, we have been unable to ride so far. We are offered quite a bit, but don’t really know when we will get helmets. If we are caught riding a bike/horse/donkey etc. without a helmet, we are sent home.

After group lunch today, Rebecca and I decided we needed a little social entertainment tonight, so we headed to the local store to pick up some refreshments. 80 som later, we got a bottle of top shelf vodka, and a bunch of different mixers. All for less than $2. We are meeting everyone at Xouhoa’s house at 7 and then we headed to the Disco Tech at 9, to dance with our students and get a little fix of American pop music. Its so crazy that anyone can buy liquor in this country.

I think some of the things I miss the most here are: ICE CUBES, (no such thing here), pillows, SHOWERS, (also no such thing here), refrigeration, (nothing is refrigerated here. And we never drink anything except tea, so I’m glad I gave up soda back in April, but just imagine never having anything cold to drink), chicken (they don’t eat it. They just have 100+ running wild in the yards and the village) and pets. I imagine the list will grow and grow, but we did find out that you can get your hair wash for 5 som in the city at a salon. Which will probably be something we do as much as possible. Haircuts are pretty sketchy. Don’t plan on one of those for about the next two years. Two years, I figure at least 12 inches of hair…

I can now count to 100 in Kyrgyz, which is kind of exciting to me. Helpful in telling my family what time I will be home and when I am leaving, etc.

Miss everyone and have a new thought for the day coming from a book mom sent me, (which of course I finished) Cindi Meyers, My Backwards Life:

I admire people who are a little bit outside the curve of conventionality. In the end, it doesn’t matter what kind of job we have, where we have traveled, whether we are married or unmarried, wealthy or of modest means. What matters is the relationships we build along the way.

October 1, 2005

Wow. October already. Crazy. To think only a month ago I was hanging out in Idaho and now I am more than halfway across the world, attempting to become part of a former soviet country. Maybe just attempting to stand out less or something. I’m sure walking home from Culture Day in my oversized J-Lo sunglasses and fancy flip-flops, I did just that.

Lat night’s vodka experience wasn’t all we thought it would be. We drank the whole bottle, but it didn’t seem to have an affect on any of us, which is probably a good thing. We did go to the disco tech, but we weren’t allowed to stay over at Xouhoa’s house. So we all had to walk each other home in the dark, with just our flashlights and no street lamps. The disco tech consisted of a tape player and one speaker. And a bunch of teenagers dancing weirdly in a dark room. We walked in to the dance and had a circle around is in no time. We did some dancing, but after my host brother and yellow hat guy showed up at the junior high dance, we started to get a little weary and left.

Culture Day was amazing. We started out by taking the good old marchukas to the Barana, which is an official Kyrgyz monument. Students take field trips to this monument, and there is a monumental cemetery (not actually the graves) as well as a museum full of artifacts from the Silk Road. We were greeted immediately by the sounds of an antagonized sheep, tied to a tree. We were then informed that this was in fact, lunch. In the Kyrgyz culture when someone dies, or gets married, or basically for any kind of party, a sheep is sacrificed. So the first event of culture day was the sacrificing of the sheep. We were not forced to watch the process, but I thought, hell, I’m not a religious person, but I can appreciate other people’s beliefs. I was wrong. The entire crowd gathered around as Bak and a priest preformed a traditional song/prayer in front of the awaiting sheep. They then hog tied the thing, until it was tied so tight it couldn’t do anything but lay on a mat and breathe heavily. When Bak took the knife out, I’m afraid I lost it, and had to run from the scene, so I can’t really describe much more of the process. I hate to see animals tied up, and even though I plan to marry a rodeo man, he better be a bull rider, because I don’t support calf tying. But, what I didn’t observe was basically the slitting of the throat and then the process of sheering, skinning etc. We moved into three groups and visited first the cemetery and then the museum. The final stop was the Barana itself, a brick monument that you climb up through the inside, in 100% darkness. We took pictures from the top and then tried to climb down, through the dark tunnel.

Besides watching the sheep die, we actually had a pretty good time. Lunch was served in giant outdoor woks, and we had plov, (carrots and rice), a salad made of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, and fruit and bread. We all brought dishes from home as well as table clothes and mats to sit on, so the picnic was quite nice. At these kind of celebrations, a bowl of fermented mare’s milk or something like it, is passed around after the meal. However gets the bowl has to perform for the group. A couple of our coordinators sang traditional songs and did dances, and then Tim from Minnesota and Phil, (I forgot where he is from… sorry Phil… but you sure are handsome!!!) got out Phil’s guitar and sang Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here and The Beatles’ Norwegian Wood.

Then the eldest person at the celebration gets to eat the best ‘parts’ of the sheep. Phil and a couple of other guys tried the eyeballs and such.

After lunch a dance/song troupe performed for the group for about an hour. They sang and danced and played instruments like the mouth harp and a bunch of others that I don’t know the names of.

Then it was time for traditional Kyrgyz sports. And if you had heard rumors about horses and goat carcasses, you heard right. Men on horseback mob each other with a headless goat and try to take it away from one another. Interesting sport huh? Seriously, it is like a dogpile, only with horses and a dead goat flying around. After the goat game, the men perform tricks on the horses and wrestle one another to the ground, from the horse’s back.

We played more games after the horse play…. Good one… The boys raced one another with the winner getting the privilege of cutting the scarf from a baby’s legs. They tie up the baby’s legs, to symbolize its first steps. Another different (I use different because I am trying to keep an open mind) game. People here play games like Red Rover, Duck Duck Goose and Dodgeball as well. We had a few little problems with dodgeball, okay well I lied, just me. I accidentally pegged Christal in the chest with the ball, and she had to sit out. Sometimes I guess I throw too hard, its all those years of softball, but I know Kinsie and Alison would be proud.

We spent the entire day at the celebration, and then headed back to the village. It was great to see all the volunteers outside of the school for once. The weather was great, and actually most of us got pretty sunburned, me included. Didn’t think to wear sunscreen, as it has been getting colder here each day.

Oh yeah I almost forgot, my handsome man from before (that I said probably would kidnap me) came to the celebration today and took part in the horse games. So now I am a little more worried, but Phil is going to help me and pretend to be my fiancé or something.

So all in all, an awesome day. We had a lot of fun and really tried to appreciate more of the culture here. And it gets better…. TODAY IS BANYA DAY. That’s right it’s the sixth day of the week and that mean I get a banya tonight. I’ll sleep easy tonight. Plus I get to the big city tomorrow and call and email and shop for winterish clothes!!!! What a fun weekend!!!!

Watching Sweet Home Alabama (again) and falling asleep before my banya, got to rest, as otherwise the steam will probably make me pass out. Hopefully when I post this I well call home and Katie as well.

Thanks for reading another week’s worth of thoughts… many more to come I’m sure.

October 2, 2005

Of course we didn’t get to send emails or anything like that today. But, I have to say I experienced my first Kyrgyz Bazaar.

The marchuka picked me up at 8 this morning and we headed into Bishkek for the bazaar. It is a nice drive, about an hour and a half along the river that is also the boarder between Kyrgyz and Kazakstan. The marchuka has two back seats and then a third that faces backward, so as the last one to get on the marchuka every morning, I always have to sit backward. (This is because my home is a bit out of town, and they pick me up on the way).

The bazaar is nothing like I ever seen. I don’t think it is something I will be frequenting in the future. You enter and its warehouse type building that look like box cars, but they are open and you go inside. Booth after booth filled with American knock off clothing, sunglasses, beauty products, electronics, coats, women’s clothes, men’s clothes, shoes, food, fruit, nuts, candy, alcohol, luggage, purses, etc. are lined in crazy rows with men constantly yelling ‘Johl’ or move in Russian as they came though with carts full of stuff. People bargain, but not with Americans, as they expect us to pay full price. It was a chance to test out language, and luckily as I have mastered numbers, I had a pretty easy time asking how much and what size. I am not really a thrifty kind of shopper, I probably get this from my mother, so I don’t really like to bargain or sort through stuff. But, I was looking for some warm sweaters, boots and possibly a shell to wear over my down coat. Rebecca brought no type of coat and tried to find a winterish jacket, but we were so crammed and pushed for time that we only made it to one section of the gigantic bazaar. I did pick up some nail polish, (20 som or about .50 cents) and some peanuts. We all got bags and bags of peanuts, as we are definitely lacking in protein.

Oh yeah I forgot. I bought DVD’s clearly bootlegged, as they are 10 movies per disk. I got one disk with Madagascar, Batman Begins, Star Wars, The Island, Stealth, The Skeleton Key, Mr. And Mrs. Smith, Fantastic Four and some other movies on it for like 200 som. Pretty good deal. And it works, I tried it on my computer. I got another disc with the Father of the Bride series and American Pie series on it as well. I think that will be my favorite thing about the bazaar. Music and DVDs. Other people bought fruit, nuts, house slippers and perfume. At one booth I saw a back massager and picked it up and tried it on Rebecca’s back. The woman grabbed it from my hand, screamed at me to get away in Russian, and yelled good bye. So apparently I had my first bit of cultural sensitivity. I still don’t know what I did wrong, but oh well.

I tried to find sweaters, but all the sleeves seemed dirty and I am just to picky about my clothes.

But then I got home and decided to organize my closet into a perfect order (Katie would be so proud) and realized that I managed to bring with me, 23 skirts, 12 sweaters, 13 thermal shirts, 10 more long sleeves, 15 short sleeves, 12 tanks, 8 pairs of sweats/pajamas, 8 pairs of jeans, plus 7 pairs of pants, 5 button up dress shirts, three dress jackets, three dresses, a raincoat, a down coat, just 5 pairs of shoes and a few more random articles here and there. I think I did pretty well on the packing. I didn’t realize I had enough clothes to go for more than a month without doing laundry, So I really didn’t need much at the bazaar. What I forgot to bring or hoped to purchase here was converters/adapters for my electronics. My hair hasn’t seen a blow dryer in three weeks now, and has only been washed (GASP) 4 times, including tonight. Tonight I got the experience of banyaing with my host mom AND her two granddaughters. Just the way I bet all of you spent your Sunday evenings…

We only stayed at the bazaar for three hours and then headed back to Duhn Arayak (our village) as our driver had to be back early. We were all pretty disappointed as we had hoped to go to Zum to buy electronic stuff. (Huge department store in the cities). We did stop for lunch at an outdoor café in Kant City. This was our first restaurant experience since the first days where we had the food poisoning epidemic. This was a neat place, you ate on floating rooms over the water. But, you only have a choice of two things on the menu. So we all went with logman, or noodles and veggies. I came home and fell asleep right away, as it was a long day and a lot to deal with. I watched one of the movies and then it was time for dinner and banya. At least I finally feel clean. I was actually so drained from the weekend that the banya was quite miserable. It is so hot and sauna-like that I thought I might pass out, so I hurried through it and got out to drink a bottle of water. Which isn’t a good idea at night as everyone now understands the outhouse situation. My new problem is that the wind has picked up and the door won’t stay shut.

We leave on Tuesday morning for our site visits. I am staying with Maya. That’s all I know about here, but I believe that she lives with a host family still and lives right on the water. The lake is translated as ‘Hot Lake’ (It doesn’t freeze, despite the temperatures) and is supposed to be amazing. I am hoping that I will like the environment there and then I will request it as a permanent site, as hopefully being on the lake will remind me of home. I get to use my sleeping bag and my big backpack for the first time since I have been here, as we are traveling all week. Some people have 10-12 hour taxi rides ahead of them, as buses and marchukas do not go over the mountains. I have a relatively short ride. Christal and I will travel together on a public bus.

Tomorrow, (Monday), we head into Tokmok for a hub day. We get our second allowance, and we are hoping it goes up a little from 45 som per day, as a soda costs 30. Who knows though, we all finally exchanged money last week. Our biggest expense has been riding into Tokmok, as it cost 45 som each time we go. The trip to Bishkek cost us all 150 som today. At first I could care less, as I just thought, 150 som, ha that’s only a few dollars. But, really we can’t think in American currency any longer. We only get 45 som a day, and that’s the realization that we have to come to. Otherwise every purchase could be easily justified. (For example, I thought about buying a donkey. It cost 800 som. Which is only $20). But that’s like 20 days worth of allowance. Plus, we don’t have helmets, so we can’t ride. Which really is too bad, as I have been offered so many different rides on various animals. Remember, yellow hat guy has a champion horse that he races.

I am going to sneak away to the Internet café to send this out while in the city tomorrow. Won’t be able to make any calls, but at least I can check my email. I am so worn out, I’m going to sleep now, and hopefully I will actually sleep through the night. I forgot to mention I think, that my family sells gas out of the house. (Thank god the Peace Corps gave my a smoke detector, not that it will really be effective with all the tanks of gas). 24 hours a day cars pull up to the house and honk their horns or ring our doorbell which plays music. They buy about a liter for 25 som. We sell it in coke bottles or Fanta bottles (Fanta is so popular here, and coca-cola in pronounced ‘Sosa Sola’) Apparently my host father drives into Kazakstan and buys it on the black market and then brings it back here to sell way cheap. So it’s a pretty happening place around here. And they all like to see the American and make fun of my language skills too. Sometimes our doorbell rings all night, sometimes I don’t hear it.

But otherwise, I like it here and am very content. But if I had a voltage adapter, to straighten my hair, I would be out of this world happy! (Don’t send one, I can get it here!!!)